Saturday Stuff (updates)

The person pictured above between Former Commander Codpiece on the right and Our Gal Condi Rice on the left is Michael Gerson, former George W. Bush speechwriter. He served as a propagandist for our former ruling cabal of criminals before he was rewarded for his efforts with a job as a columnist for the Washington Post.

The reason I’m pointing out Gerson is because he died recently, apparently from kidney cancer complications at 58 as noted here. I’m genuinely sorry to hear that, and I’d like to extend my condolences to his family and friends. However, that’s not “the end of the story,” you might say.

Gerson had what I would call a peculiar gift with language, and that is that he could couch some truly insidious sentiments behind flowery phrasing, you might say. It would often take me a minute or two to process exactly what it was that he wrote, and by the time I did, I felt steam coming out of my ears. Probably that type of phrase that he’ll be remembered for the most is “the soft bigotry of low expectations,” related to #43’s whole No Child Left Behind grift, which of course was a way to reward Bush’s brother Neil selling his scammy educational products (I got into that way back when here), while at the same time trying to undercut public schools in this country (because, as any Republican will tell you, the only thing a U.S. public school can do is “fail”). That phrase from Gerson was his way of accusing Democrats of wanting to maintain the status quo and not see kids in this country achieve under his boss’s supposedly inspired plan.

Like with most print media hangers-on, Gerson was treated as some kind of eminence grise in the columnist world for becoming a supposed expert on how other people should live their lives (see BoBo, Bedbug Bret and The Moustache of Understanding in “the old gray lady”). However, I will always remember Gerson (and not fondly) for the speech he wrote for Bush on the 60th anniversary of V-E Day (news story is here). I’m not quite able to track down a link to the speech at the moment (I’ll keep trying), but I’ll never forget that it contained some truly Gerson-esque language which in essence said that the “global war on terror” being waged at that time was more important than World War II. And that pretty much enraged me because it diminished the sacrifice of my father as well as thousands of other U.S. soldiers who gave up big parts of their lives (and many suffering grave injuries or death of course) to fight in that conflict. And because I couldn’t think of much of anything else to do in response, I came up with this dumb blog to chronicle the nonsense of the Bush Administration and hold it up to the ridicule I thought it deserved. And nearly 18 years later, I’m still at it with this masochistic exercise (against myriad others besides the Bush Administration since then of course).

So I guess maybe in a weird way, I should thank Gerson. But I’m not prepared to do that at the moment, and I don’t think that I ever will be.

Now to the videos...Cenk and Ana of TYT tell us about yet another bomb threat received by Boston’s Children’s Hospital because they provide gender-affirming care, from demagoguery generated by that scumwaffle Matt Walsh (Ana and Cenk of TYT bring the reality perspective, and yeah, apparently the number of kids receiving puberty blockers is about 1K per year, not “millions” or “hundreds of thousands”...kudos to Cenk for his completely appropriate outrage)...



...and Jesse Dollemore tells us that Herschel Walker in Georgia is apparently trying to lock up that all-important “werewolves and vampires” voting bloc in his runoff election for the U.S. Senate with incumbent Dem Raphael Warnock...almost embarrassing to witness this, but attention must be paid to Walker if we are to defeat him...



...and Chris Hayes speaks with Obama senior advisor David Plouffe about the prospects of actual U.S. House governance from the “clown car caucus” of Not Your Father’s Republican Party...yeah, the chances of that are dim at best...the interview ends up as a tribute to Nancy Pelosi, who is stepping down from a leadership role in that body...you can measure Pelosi’s success by the pure, unbridled hatred aimed at her from the other side...and GREAT point about Hakeem Jeffries as a good choice for minority leader since he’s from NY and could help to win back those 4 seats that were lost, which could be critical in ’24...I’m hearing stuff about Jeffries being a corporate Dem, but we’ll see how that plays out of course...



...and I now give you the latest installment of “This Day In Doomsy History”...we’re just going around the corner back to a year ago today, with David Doel commenting on some typical Lauren Boebert insanity, this time aimed at Dem U.S. House Rep Ilhan Omar...and yes, this is topical because Boebert did manage to get back to the House for another term, as I suspected she would unfortunately (Adam Frisch, who ran a solid campaign, called her and conceded, because that’s what losers of elections are supposed to do in this country)...



Update: And of course Boebert and her playmates in "the sedition caucus" got help from some of the cretinous corporate criminals noted here.

Update 11/21/22: As I said, election losers are supposed to concede, shut up and go away, but of course that dangerous wackadoodle Kari Lake doesn't plan to do that (here).

...and I’m glad to hear things are going so well for the “bird app” under the alleged guidance of King Elon I, some other plutocrat presumed to be a genius of entrepreneurship...



Update: I know King Elon had some phony-baloney online poll about whether our not Orange Lucifer should be allowed back on Elon’s “bird app,” and apparently 52 percent of those polled said Yes, so #45 was allowed back on, and his followers total immediately jumped to about one million, and a whole bunch of people I respect are getting the willies over it.

Since Generalissimo Trump used the bird app to stage an armed insurrection against this country, as far as I’m concerned, he should be automatically disqualified for signing up on it again. But you know what? If he gets back on and gets a million followers – good. Same if he gets two million. Or three million.

Mango Mussolini’s continued online presence will remind everyone in this country with a brain of what a thoroughly execrable biped life form he truly is.

And at this stage of the game, does ANYBODY SERIOUSLY THINK he can actually generate enough of an impact to warrant serious consideration as a presidential nominee again? Hell, even Rupert The Pirate has turned on him (here). And so what if Our Ochre Abomination gets three million followers. How many registered voters are there in this country? About 220-230 million?

Using the bird app to remind everyone that Former President Fergus Laing remains a free man will reinforce to the vast majority of this country how sycophantic, moribund and decayed his political party truly is. So, as Cenk Uygur would say, “have at it, hoss.”

Update 11/20/22: I think Trump is now at about 83 million followers on the bird app (my guess is that at least half are trolls and/or bots). And yes, my point still stands IMO.

Update 1 11/21/22: In fewer words, let me just say this. If anybody thinks I’m going to cower before that bloated orange pustule regardless of what he does...well, you just don’t know me very well, do you?

Update 2 11/21/22: Uh, yep.

...and for folks in Montgomery County, PA, there are still a couple of hours left to participate in a gun buy-back dropoff program at the locations noted here – with that in mind, I offer the following anti-gun tune.

Thursday Stuff

Sam Seder discusses Andy Biggs and his “palace revolt” against new House Speaker Kevin McCarthy (ugh...) – yeah, Biggs reeks entitlement which is typical for a Republican of course, showing that he and his party have learned not a damn thing from the last elections...and I’m sure it is going to get pretty damn dark with this bunch (and @RepBrianFitz will be along for the ride too), which may ultimately be a blessing because it will remind younger voters and independents to NEVER support these clowns in another election...



...and with the prior clip in mind somewhat, David Pakman presents data telling us that 18- to 29-year-olds basically saved our democracy in the most recent elections (now the damn Democrats need to f*cking REMEMBER THAT FROM NOW ON!)...



...and I honestly don’t know what’s going on with the PA House races in our beloved commonwealth for Bucks and Montgomery counties, but it’s nice to see Keystone State Dems get some “love” (Rachel Maddow tells us more)...



Update 1 11/18/22: As Atrios would say, ah well, nevertheless (here).

Update 2 11/18/22: EXCELLENT!

...and Jesse Dollemore gives us the latest Herschel Walker insanity (and actually, the date of the runoff is December 6th...as far as I’m concerned, the Dems have been treating Walker with kid gloves, when in fact it’s long past time to politically tear his head off...to help incumbent Dem Raphael Warnock, click here)...



Update: YES!!!!

...and John and Jayar tell us about the U.S. Senate passing a bill protecting same-sex marriage, and the House should indeed do so before the Repugs take over – like with the Maddow clip, I don’t know if there are any new developments; if I hear of anything, I’ll update this post...



...and this More Perfect Union video tells us why the proposed merger of the Kroger’s and Albertson’s supermarket chains could cause food prices to skyrocket (great, just what we need...very NSFW/H for a moment, but for a good reason)...



...and the latest from Second Thought tells us How Capitalism Ruined The Internet (important history lesson in his clips as always, this time having to do with DARPA, the creation of the internet, etc...”It bears repeating that, if a service is free, you are the product,” and “we absolutely need these regulatory band-aids, but we can’t leave the stabbing machine turned on.”...typically spot-on, and I didn’t know about the municipalities that set up their own broadband; we need to find some way to synergize all of that so these areas can have efficiencies and build out that network a bit across the country – sorry for the corporate-speak – mildly NSFW/H)...



...and RIP Keith Levene of The Clash.

Wednesday Stuff

Beau of the Fifth Column tells us about Mango Mussolini’s announcement that he’s running for president once more, which apparently was also greeted with a yawn by Rupert The Pirate’s vanity rag as noted here (about #45, apparently his presentation had low energy – sad!)...



...and David Doel tells us about Our Ochre Abomination’s typically scammy online operation with Herschel Walker (the whole 90/10 thing for donations)...

...and of course, what would Life In These United States be without another mass shooting (an update is here)...



...and Farron Cousins tells us about ballots getting “fixed” in Colorado, particularly in Bo-Bo-Boebert’s third district race against Adam Frisch, and no, that doesn’t mean anything illegal is going on, as Cousins explains...I believe today is the deadline for this effort; if I were to bet, I would say that Boebert gets back in unfortunately, mainly because she has the power of incumbency on her side, sadly (but again, as Cousins says, nobody really knows what’s going on here, which is the way the process is supposed to work)...



...and Mike Figueredo of The Humanist Report tells us about the monumental political incompetence of Sean Patrick Maloney, head of the DCCC, and how he not only blew his own race, but ended up sinking so much money into a losing effort that it cost Dems in other races across the country that they might have been able to win (Slate article can be accessed from here...probably NSFW/H)...



(By the way, related to Maloney, I saw a really good post on Daily Kos that I’ll try to find and link here. The post had to do with $15 million raised by Marcus Flowers, who ran against Marjorie Traitor Greene. Yes, it would have been satisfying to see her lose, but her district was about plus-30-or-40 for Trump in 2020 at least, so seriously, what chance did Flowers have? Sorry if that sounds mean, but that’s the reality...and wouldn’t it have made more sense to spend some of that on, say, Tom Malinowski in NJ-7 who ended up losing to Baby Kean by about 10,000 votes?).

...and David Pakman gives us a bit of a preview of the '24 races, which look like they could be tougher for Dems...

via GIPHY

...(and yeah, I know it's waaay too damn early for that, but that means that the clock is now running for real against "Curtsy Kyrsten"...more here)...



...and David Shuster tells us once more about all of the “red wave” predictions getting blown to smithereens...in addition to Pakman, Shuster also makes a great point about the importance of Georgia now, since, if Warnock knocks off Walker, the Dems won’t feel like they have to go along with this idiotic “power sharing” agreements on various Senate committees...also important to note Biden's judicial appointments...



...and RIP front man Dan McCafferty of the band Nazareth.

Monday Stuff

It’s always a good thing for Fix and Fiends to get the treatment it deserves, as well as a certain 45th president along with Kari Lake, who, as we know, ran for Arizona governor (from SNL’s “cold open” a few nights ago)...



...and the prior clip was meant as a joke of course (though it’s pretty close to reality), but this isn’t amusing in any way at all, given that Herschel Walker could actually end up as a U.S. Senator (to help Raphael Warnock in the runoff – and after two of these in a row in Georgia, can we PLEASE get rid of them? – click here)...



...and speaking of The Roger Ailes BS Factory, that nematode Jesse Watters thinks the Dems did well in the midterms because not enough people hate Biden, and Watters throws in a heaping does of misogyny to boot of course...as Bugs would say, what a maroon!...



...and Mike Figuerdo of The Humanist Report tells us that, for Chris Cillizza I guess, it’s “heads I win, tails I win” as far as political predictions are concerned, especially with Our Ochre Abomination (NSFW/H)...



...and speaking of people with idiot midterm predictions, Ana and Cenk of TYT (not them) tell us about Jim Cramer’s reaction to the just-concluded elections (and yeah, I’d call this a “truth bomb” for sure about the people who really call the shots and why they don’t want government to do a damn thing)...



...and John and Brett Erlich of The Damage Report tell us about the Trumpist judge who has temporarily halted Biden’s student debt relief program – and yeah, I think the plaintiff was put up to do this, especially since she apparently had all of those PPP loans forgiven, but this isn’t over yet of course...



...and Beau mentions what the Repugs have in mind to respond to what happened on 11/8, and that is to raise the voting age...seriously...which they (checks notes...) CAN’T FREAKING DO BECAUSE IT’S AN AMENDMENT TO THE FREAKING CONSTITUTION THAT THEY CLAIM TO LOVE SO DAMN MUCH! - one of Beau's more tongue-in-cheek commentaries...



...and I have to admit that it’s been a long time since I heard a track from Shinedown...forgot how good they are (won’t make that mistake again...mildly NSFW/H).

Friday Stuff

Thom Hartmann asks if white supremacy and oligarch wealth is all the GOP stands for...If you have to ask the question, I’m sure you know the answer...interesting history on the cotton gin prior to the Civil War, and I hope I’m being only hyperbolic to think that we could be heading for those days again, but Thom makes a pretty damn good case that we are, especially with not much push-back, though there is some from Team “D” to be fair (as somebody else once said, the fault, dear Brutus, is not in our stars, but in ourselves – for electing these frauds, I mean)...



...and Mike Figueredo of Humanist Report discusses the wingnuts beating their chests about a “red wave,” when, in reality, if they DO win, it will be because of gerrymandering in Florida and New York, which was allowed when President Manchin and Vice President Sinema killed the John Lewis Voting Act...NSFW/H (I’m letting these goofballs have more of their say in this clip than I would normally, but I think it’s hilarious for all of these people, including Baby Ben, to refuse to chastise their voters in any way whatsoever, though of course Shapiro can’t resist being snarky towards Arizona election officials, when those people should be praised for ensuring that our elections are fair despite the howls of Trumpist outrage)...



...and this is more reporting from TYT on ballot initiatives protecting abortion rights, notably in Kentucky and Montana (Ana Kasparian, Aishwarya Nag Choudhury, and Kate Bettino discuss)..



...and Farron Cousins says that he’ll be happy never having to hear of Mehmet (“CALL ME DOCTOR, DAMMIT!”) Oz again...we’ll see (as somebody said, Everything Trump Touches Dies...unfortunately, though, I think Boebert is going to make it back into the House, last I heard...can’t imagine the mind-numbing stupidity of supporting this person, and hopefully I never will)...



...and this next-to-latest video from Second Thought tells us How Capitalism Exploits Disasters, which may be timely with Hurricane Nicole bearing down on Ron #DeathSantis-stan (latest is here) – “Capitalism produces hierarchies of power, and that power entrenches these hierarchies.”...damn straight!...



...and this More Perfect Union video tells us about strippers forming a union at the Star Garden strip club (good for them)...



...and with workforce issues in mind, I now give you the latest installment of “This Day In Doomsy History” (more or less) from 11/14/08, which is some more snark aimed at corporations exploiting their workforce to prevent ANY possibly of the Employee Free Choice Act being passed and signed into law...it made it through the House awhile back, but died in the Senate, as you might expect (wonder if it could be re-introduced, maybe by a certain newly-elected U.S. Senator from PA?)...



...and today would have been the 95th birthday of Mose Allison.

Update: And by the way, Happy Veterans Day.

Thursday Stuff

Trae Crowder brings us his take on the election results, including the upcoming runoff (ugh!) between Herschel Walker and Raphael Warnock in Georgia (and do I EVER wish that Mango Mussolini would stick his bloated orange face right into the middle of this for the Repug; again, what does it tell you what Not Your Father’s Republican Party truly thinks of people of color that they would consider Walker a reasonable political choice?...and “whites with walkers”...heh)...



...and this Damage Report clip with John and Jayar tells us about Tik Toker Dara Faye calling Repug U.S. House Rep Mike Garcia about her menstruation/ovulation...hey, if Garcia is going to act like an expert on women’s anatomy, then he should go “the whole night yards” you might say, right?...



...and Sam and Emma of The Majority Report tell us about Fix Noise having a tough time explaining the election – awww, boo-freaking-hoo, Ainsley Earhardt...and I honestly don’t know why Sam is confused about what the Repugs will run on...WHAT THE HELL DO THEY ALWAYS RUN ON? "OMIGOD, DEMS BURNING DOWN OUR CITIES WITH CRIME, OPEN BORDERS, FENTANYL HALLOWEEN CANDY, HIGH SCHOOL KIDS USING LITTER BOXES," etc...that said, Sam makes a good point about what a clusterf*ck NYC Dems made out of the crime issue with their nutty mayor Eric Adams and how that played into the already messed-up situation with Mondaire Jones and Sean Maloney that, unfortunately, created an opening for the winning U.S. House Republican, along with the departed-but-not-missed NY governor Andrew Cuomo and his role in U.S. House gerrymandering ...I have a feeling that Emma’s comment at the very end about the Repugs taking the House by the slimmest of margins, though they’ll be plagued by infighting, may be correct, but we’ll see of course)...



...and Trumpist nut jobs (basically, just rebranded Republicans) were on display recently in Asheville, NC (which I thought was a cool place...maybe it still is? – Richard Ojeda tells us more)...



...and I agree with a lot of this post-election analysis from Chris Hayes, though he seems to “disappear” the influence of younger voters...not sure why (maybe because they don’t watch MSNBC?...and oh yeah, there was this)...



...and this J.T. Chapman/MPU collaboration focuses on billionaire scumbag Peter Thiel, who of course is doing all he can to buy our elections (and I have to admit that I hadn’t heard of “litigation financing” until now, as well as this “dark enlightenment” stuff...no end to the scheming of these rich cretins)...



...and sticking with the regularly scheduled carnage of Vlad The Butcher in Ukraine, it looks like Russian troops are pulling back from the city of Kherson, though it’s unclear as to what the next move is; it’s definitely progress for Ukraine, but there’s also definitely some “fog of war” stuff going on here too...with DW correspondent Nick Connolly...



...and RIP legendary engineer Joe Tarsia, who played a big role in the Philly Sound, starting with the Cameo/Parkway label before his work with Kenny Gamble and Leon Huff; here is a signature tune from “back in the day.”

Wednesday Stuff

Cenk and Ana tells us about Vlad Putin and his pals acting pretty brazenly in the matter of interfering in our elections, making some kind of reference to “liver” and “kidneys,” which sounds pretty “old world,” I have to admit (and also, to be honest, it's not like we haven't done the same thing ourselves to other countries in the past).

And by the way (speaking of elections), congratulations to all of the winning Dems, including Josh Shapiro; of all of the candidates, his is the race that we ABSOLUTELY had to win, and Shapiro was called as the winner pretty early last night (happily, it was a bad night for “Christian nationalist” nut job Doug Mastriano and other election-denying Repugs, including Kari Lake...Update 11/10: I know the Lake/Hobbs race hasn't been called yet). Kudos also go to John Fetterman; we'll see about the Senate, though of course that and the House are still in play...and yes, it’s pretty damn unbelievable that the Georgia contest between Herschel Walker and Dem incumbent Raphael Warnock looks like it’s headed to a runoff, but that probably should not have been that surprising. To me, the lesson of the Fetterman win is to build your ground game, which Fetterman did in every county of this commonwealth. How the national Democratic Party somehow either forgot to learn that lesson or de-prioritized it at the expense of massive TV ad blitzes is something I cannot understand, and since Chuck Schumer and Jaime Harrison were basically incommunicado in the cycle for some strange reason, all we can do is guess at whatever their logic was. And of course, we’ll learn more about the cycle that just ended over the coming days, but normally the mid-terms would be awful for the party in power, but it wasn’t I believe for 2 reasons. The first is the repercussions on the SCOTUS Dobbs decision, and the second is the engagement of younger voters.

And on that subject, I think congratulations are in order to Ashley Ehasz. Even though she lost, she got a lot of younger engagement and built a coalition that Bucks County Democrats would do well to sustain and try to add onto in the ensuing years, to say nothing of the state and national party trying to do that also. Ehasz came flying out of the gate (unlike, say, Scott Wallace a few years ago with that bizarre video segment with Diane Marseglia with the two of them wondering why Wallace was running, or whatever that was) and made it clear what she was trying to accomplish with her campaign, and she did a great job on social media (unlike the rest of the party generally, and I know I’ve already expounded on that). To be fair, PA-01 is rough sledding for ANY Democrat, partly because of this centrist mythology created around Brian Fitzpatrick by our media, as well as Fitzpatrick’s occasionally middle-of-the-road votes. Also, a Dem running in this district absolutely has to find a way to peel away enough votes from, say, Quakertown, Wrightstown, Perkasie, Warrington...places that are Republican strongholds with McMansion communities. The Dobbs SCOTUS ruling resonated all over the country, but not enough in the suburbs to make a difference when it came to voting out Republicans. However, I have a feeling that it DID pretty much kill any potential for a “red wave,” which is definitely a victory of sorts.

Still, though (and I'm sorry if I sound like a bit of a wet blanket), it's unbelievable to me that truly obscene amounts of money keep getting spent in our elections, especially on the national level, and the candidates we elect are pretty much the same over and over (yes, there are notable victories to be sure, but not many overall).

Anyway, here’s the TYT clip...



...and David Doel gives us his take on the election, noting that AIPAC spent $4 million against Summer Lee, though they might as well have set that $$ on fire...that’s nothing compared to Sen. Mr. Elaine Chao dumping $41 million for Mehmet (“CALL ME DOCTOR, DAMMIT!”) Oz...and yeah, it’s gratifying to know that that money went for nothing also, but it’s sickening to think of all of the better ways that that money could have been spent (and yeah, it’s likely that NO Democrat would have won in Ron #DeathSantis-stan, but when Val Demings and Charlie Crist were basically mute during that voting purge stunt pulled by the FLA guv, I had a feeling they were going to be toast anyway...I didn’t know about the Cortez-Masto/Laxalt race, but God, talk about “not reading the room” – ugh!...to do something to help, click here...very mildly NSFW/H)...



...and I probably shouldn’t spend a millisecond on Our Ochre Abomination, but I guess I have to revel a bit in yet another of his unending hissy fits over the vote, as Jesse Dollemore tells us (though, as noted, Walker is still in the running, unfortunately)...



...and Lawrence O’Donnell (in a clip before the vote) gives us two confessions related to Trump and misinformation (including that nut Tim Michels, running for WI governor – Michels lost, fortunately...and I would respectfully disagree with Lawrence’s assessment that “millions of Trump supporters” are smarter than Our Ochre Abomination...their actions certainly don’t indicate that)...



...and Adrienne Lawrence tells us about GOP state rep Janel Brandtjen trying to keep military ballots from being counted...yeah, I’m remembering all of the wingnuts yelling “SUPPORT THE TROOPS, YOU DUMB LIB!” during Dubya’s Iraq War...and of course, EVERYBODY had those yellow car decals too (and Brandtjen won her election, which, to me, puts the lie even more to the notion that the Republican Party overall gives a damn about our military)...



...and I need something to help me chill out a bit from the events of the last day or so; I hope this does the trick for you also.

Tuesday Stuff

David Pakman tells us about Former President Bill Clinton’s recent remarks, which perfectly sum up Not Your Father’s Republican Party...



...so what is The Treasonous Insurrectionist Party doing instead? They’re trying to block 26 million student loan debtors for obtaining forgiveness for their loans of course, arguing that student loan forgiveness will diminish tax revenues; I guess it shouldn’t be surprising to hear such an idiotic argument from the political party that still believes in trickle-down economics, despite the mountain of evidence proving that IT IS AN UTTER FRAUD! (Farron Cousins tells us about it)...



...and Ali Velshi tells us here about Blake Masters lying at a rally in the matter of how much money the U.S. sends to Ukraine and whether or not we should even send anything at all (we should of course), as well as which president threatened to use nukes (hint: it was the leader of Cult 45)...yeah, there are a lot of reasons why Masters shouldn’t be elected despite all the $$ nut job billionaire Peter Thiel is throwing at him, and here are some more (to do what you can to help Masters’ opponent, Dem incumbent U.S. Senator Mark Kelly, click here)...



...and Jayar and Jackson White of Rebel HQ bring us the story of some Oath Keeper nut and insurrectionist (Stewart Rhodes) comparing himself to Nelson Mandela and saying his ilk shouldn’t be afraid to go to prison for 20 years...and we’re supposed to make common cause with these lunatics (“What you become is a slave,” huh? As if you would know.)...



...and this dropped from Really American last night; apparently, Mehmet (“CALL ME DOCTOR, DAMMIT!”) Oz has been housing Turkish nationals in a luxurious condominium who of course won’t recognize Turkey’s Armenian genocide (to help John Fetterman and get rid of this quack at long last, click here)...



...and I know the odds are long for Beto O’Rourke in Texas at this point (I can’t imagine a mindset that hates Democrats so damn much that you’d want to wreck your entire state for it, and hopefully I never will), but this New York Times video essay tells us about what I would call Greg Abbott’s criminal negligence during a winter energy crisis not quite two years ago in which hundreds of people in his state died, including the mother of a woman profiled in the clip...



...and Beau reads a truly touching letter from someone whose dad passed away, though you could argue that he “died to MAGA” first (if you watch Steve Kornacki tonight in front of that damn map with all of his projections and statistics, I would respectfully ask that you please remember that the “horserace” BS isn’t what this stuff should be all about – first and foremost, it’s all about flesh-and-blood people and their needs and aspirations, as well as those of their families and friends, echoed in the prior clip also)...



...and I know in the past on election day I’ve put up “Stand Up” by Trapt here, but I think this tune is also pretty apropos for the wingnuts who want to bring an end to roughly about 246 years of our elected democracy.

Monday Stuff

More than any other person or entity, the Republican Party is responsible for the events of January 6, 2021, as shown once more in this clip as they occurred (and let's not forget these bastards either)...



...and for PA folks, to support John Fetterman running for the U.S. Senate, click here (as well as Ashley Ehasz and Josh Shapiro)...



...and to support Mandela Barnes running for the U.S. Senate in Wisconsin, click here (and RoJo would be leading the charge to dismatle Social Security and Medicare; more on that here)...



...and to support Tim Ryan running for the U.S. Senate in Ohio, click here...



...and to support Dem incumbent U.S. Senator Mark Kelly in Arizona running for another term, click here (mildly NSFW/H)...



...and to support Val Demings running for the U.S. Senate from Florida, click here...



...and here is another clip from Brian Tyler Cohen (a repeat, I know) on Repug South Carolina state senator Sandy Senn having it out with fellow Repug Shane Massey over yet another ridiculous anti-abortion bill in this country (I realize it's way too late to get anybody registered, but everything else Cohen says is about a thousand percent correct - an update is here...and make no mistake; Huckleberry Graham wants the SAME THING for the whole damn country!)...



...and if you're looking for a motivational tune for tomorrow, allow me to offer the following.

Sunday Stuff

John of TYT tells us that billionaires spent nearly $900 million in this midterm election cycle up to 9/30; once more, Citizens United is “the gift that keeps on giving”...with Cenk and Mark Thompson...and yeah, I think Cenk has a good point about corporate media reporters, but he goes around the bend a bit when he says that those reporters are as crazed as the MAGA nutjobs...that bar chart at about 10:00 tells the story...



...and speaking of corporate media, Anderson Cooper brings us this CNN clip on a fired pastor of a Baptist church in Virginia who spoke out against the Gropenfuhrer (and it's not exactly a "news flash" to point out the fact that the Evangelicals are essentially Republican party sheep).

And by the way, I just want to say this with respect to Pastor Kopp. Like many of you I’m sure, I work and live with more than a few conservatives who are good neighbors and (I’m sure) work hard in their jobs and support their families and friends as best they can (in more than a few cases, I strongly suspect that these people are conservative, but I just don’t “go there” in an effort to keep everything on good terms – I know enough to know that they will NEVER support a Democrat under any circumstances, so I try not to engage with them politically. However, if they seek me out on that subject...well then, I’ll defend myself and my positions as best I can).

If these people choose to support Trump and ANY Republican...well, I think they’re catastrophically wrong, but I don’t have the right to say that they’re bad people. However, if they’re one of these MAGA lunatics who threaten violence of any kind against me, my family or friends, or threaten harm against us in any way at all, then yeah, they’re bad people and should be called out accordingly, but only then.

I know it’s a tricky balancing act to get this exactly right, but even though Pastor Kopp should get credit for identifying the true threat to this country, I think he went a little farther than he should have. That being said, we need a hell of a lot more Pastor Kopp’s in this country...



...also (and sticking with the media), I was trying to find something on Cheri Beasley running against Ted Budd for a U.S. Senate seat in North Carolina (seat opened by the retirement of Repug Richard Burr), and I came up with this NC local news segment where Beasley claimed that Budd voted against 4 bills to fund North Carolina police, to the tune of $32 million in appropriations (Budd apparently said the bills cost too much money...typical).

So along comes this local news reporter or someone from Politifact or whatever, who basically says, “Well, Budd voted against the bills (actually, it was 5 bills, truth be told), but these were huge appropriations bills including funding for the Department of Justice who then awarded the funding for local police anyway, so we rate the claim as Mostly False.”

Are you f’ing kidding me? Gee, how much more of a Budd apologist can you be? Did he vote against the damn bills or didn’t he? Who cares if the cops got the funding some other way or not? Budd apparently voted no on the bills, which makes Beasley’s claim correct!

#localnewsfail



...continuing, Beau tells us about Repug U.S. House Rep Dan Crenshaw’s apparent moment of clarity, emphasizing that all of the perpetrators of The Big Lie are laughing their asses off at all of the gullible fools who’ve bought into it (Beau’s T-shirts always have apropos messages for his commentaries, but none more so than today)...



...and I know this clip from Rachel Maddow is a few days old starting with the news about Paul Pelosi’s surgery in response to the hammer attack he suffered (an update is here), but I wanted to make sure I included it before the vote...yeah, Trump Jr.’s underwear and hammer tweet was about what you could expect, as was the response from the just-as-execrable Charlie Kirk...and oh yeah, Kari Lake is just so damn funny, isn’t she (#trumpettetrash), but yeah, our choice is indeed between democracy or violent repression – no middle road (and more disgusting wingnut violence in our beloved commonwealth is noted here)...



...and I offer the following without comment.

Saturday Stuff

Thom Hartmann gives us a bit of a preview of what a fascist America could look like, which to me is even MORE of a reason (as if we needed it) to make sure that it NEVER comes to pass (and let's not forget this too, or this)...



...and Jordan Uhl of Rebel HQ tells us how the Repugs perpetrating this monstrous betrayal are continuing to cast doubt on the U.S. elections and democracy as a whole, including in Arizona (and Tuckums is still crying about the Brazilian vote that elected Lula over Bolsonaro...oh, and of course Carlson mentions da Silva’s conviction, though The Swanson TV Dinner Heir didn’t also tell us that the conviction was overturned as noted here)...



...and I know I’m behind on my Second Thought videos again, but here’s the latest one in which we learn Why the U.S. is Not a Democracy (“Feeding for the poor is never going to be as profitable as over-producing for the wealthy.” And “The capitalist system cannot do anything but corrupt democracy.” – uh, yep)...



...and John and Brett Erlich of the Damage Report tells us about Oprah Winfrey endorsing John Fetterman over Mehmet (“CALL ME DOCTOR, DAMMIT!”) Oz – welcome to the fight!...



...and this More Perfect Union clip tells us about the backlash against Repugs and their attacks on public schools, including Kevin Stitt in Oklahoma (and of course Betsy DeVos is right in the middle of this mess, as you might expect)...



...and this song applies on a few different levels I know - I just felt like the time was right to add it here.

Friday Stuff

Farron Cousins brings us this clip of Arizona wingnut Kari Lake saying that, if we believe and acknowledge objective reality about the 2020 election, then we’re the ones who are conspiracy theorists...yeah, I think the crazy train is barreling out of control all right; to help Lake’s opponent, Dem Katie Hobbs, click here...



Update: Just no end to the damn lies (here).

...and Ana and John of TYT tell us about departing Repug U.S. House Rep Adam Kinzinger calling out his own party for their typical wingnuttia in response to the Paul Pelosi attack (and good point by Ana to bring up the peaceful protests at the home of “I Like Beer” Kavanaugh and the pearl-clutching that resulted from that)...

...and Jesse Dollemore tells us about The Swanson TV Dinner Heir crying about voter fraud and how there should be a protest over the Brazil elections, because of course the conservative Bolsonareo LOST...yeah, I would say this sounds like a broken record for "Tuckums" (a related post is here)...and with all due respect to Jesse, the Repugs DID file to have pointless vote recounts in red states, including Oklahoma I believe, which is particularly ridiculous because Trump won those states handily in ‘20, unfortunately...I believe it was Rachel Maddow who made the astute observation that, even though the red state recount wouldn’t change the outcome, it would still sew doubt in the minds of gullible fools over our elections, which was probably the ultimate goal in the end...



Update 11/9/22: As far as I'm concerned, the Ohio man killed here is (tragically) someone else you can add to Carlson's unofficial body count (more violence related to Tuckums is here and here).

...and I realize there’s really nothing funny about the U.S. Senate candidacy of Herschel Walker in Georgia, but I give Jimmy Kimmel credit for trying here (to help incumbent Dem Raphael Warnock running against Walker, click here)...



...but to be deadly serious about next Tuesday, I present the following from here (an incredibly important message that may indeed fall on deaf ears when it comes to the life forms who need to hear it the most, but it’s certainly worth it to keep trying to speak truth to stoo-pid...more here)...



...and happy upcoming 75th birthday to Peter Noone of Herman’s Hermits.

Thursday Stuff

Mike Figueredo of The Humanist Report discusses an alleged study about cats on college campuses and how that’s supposed to help with stress... a typically tone-deaf response from this network on what kids deal with in the cost of education including housing, books, trying to hold down a job while in school...you name it (and when this hairdo in the blue dress says kids need to get slapped, another one of these harpies chimes in with “good point” – the violence used to be hidden with a thin veneer of sorts, but Trump made everything “right” for them so now it’s all out in the open...NSFW/H)...



...and I’ve been waiting for someone to present a story about red state crime with the treatment that the Roger Ailes BS Factory routinely gives to similar stories in blue states (quick cuts, scary pronouncements whether they’re real or not, all kinds of dramatic graphics, etc.), and to his credit, Chris Hayes does that here, along with more evidence that crime is indeed a nationwide problem, but it actually is statistically worse in red states, as Dem gubernatorial candidate in Oklahoma Joy Hofmeister, among others, has pointed out...



...and speaking of red states, props to this librarian in Columbia, Tennessee for saying she was never sexually assaulted at a drag show, but twice at a church (sorry to hear – hope the perpetrators were prosecuted for it), and also saying that we should be leaving the gays and the trannies alone – she’s 100 percent right; and yeah, what’s going on in Ron #DeathSantis-stan is pretty damn disgusting all right (mildly NSFW/H as well)...



...and Beau tells us about the U.S. helping Ukraine with using and keeping track of our arms that we supply to that country, at Russia’s request (keeping track of the weapons that is, to make sure our stuff doesn’t end up on the black market...and I’d imagine that Vlad The Butcher “saw this going differently” also)...



...and this clip from the German news service DW is a few days old I know, but in it, host Sarah Kelly brings us the story of rebuilding Ukraine, with correspondent Nina Haase...



Update 11/5/22: And why am I not the least bit surprised by this? And why the hell does that lunatic at Mar-a-Lago STILL have classified documents? WHY THE HELL HAVEN'T THEY BEEN FORCIBLY REMOVED?

...and this may be one of my more autobiographical musical selections, but I'm OK with that.

Wednesday Stuff

Jesse Dollemore is BACK! Best wishes for a full recovery from his cancer surgery...this video also includes some commentary on the wingnut response to the Paul Pelosi attack (and yes, as far as I’m concerned, this is a result of the 1/6 insurrection...and we know that Fix Noise is the media wing of the Republican Party, but do you HONESTLY BELIEVE there would have been a measured response from that guttersnipe Bret Baier if, say, this alleged person had broken into the home of #MidnightMoscowMitch and attacked Elaine Chao with a hammer, to the point where SHE was the one who required brain surgery? And no, I’m not condoning violence AGAINST ANYONE...and ESPECIALLY not Dollemore and Brittany Page, who are doing tremendous work).

(As a personal aside, I just want to note that I attended my nephew’s championship football game against Pennridge last Sunday in Quakertown; he played for the Lenape Valley Indians. Both teams played exceptionally well and should be proud, but Lenape Valley lost on the very last play of the game, which was pretty much a “Hail Mary” pass – heartbreaking for the kids, I realize, but I’m sure the coaches were encouraging – they absolutely should have been anyway. I’m just pointing this out because I had the occasion to drive all over the vicinity to get to the field. It’s a beautiful area, but I absolutely could not live there. I know it’s bedrock Republican to the point of a religion - probably like youth football also – and also to the point where you’re supposed to shut up, get in line and don’t you dare ask a question about it. This was reinforced with some billboards urging anyone who viewed them to “Vote Republican, For Freedom,” with a portrait of an American eagle painted onto the display (God, country and the whole nine yards). There were also plenty of oversized message boards for Doug Mastriano, which fit the profile, sadly.

The people who ingest that stuff like a drug will have to be dragged kicking and screaming into the cold light of day, but as far as I’m concerned, that’s the future they chose for themselves.)



...and John and Maz Jobrani of The Damage Report tell us more about Paul Pelosi’s (alleged) attacker David DePape (and no disrespect to John, but unfortunately, I think he’s right; after horrible stunts like this, I’m sure there will be more than a few people who will say, “You know what? Screw it. I’m not going to run for elected office because of this madness.” And that is also terrible, and absolutely the fault of wingnut Republicans, which is almost a redundant term at this point...and yeah, I’m not the least bit surprised by this either, or this unfortunately)...



...and as far as the head of Not Your Father’s Republican Party is concerned, Farron Cousins tells us that the fraud trial for the Trump org went “off the rails” almost immediately, so much so that their lawyer’s opening statement had to be stopped by the judge and the jury sent out of the room...why should I be surprised at this point?...



...and turning briefly to world stuff, David Doel tells us that LULA WINS! In Brazil over Trumpist wingnut Jair Bolsonaro in a close election (and the last I heard on this was that Bolsonaro was actually going to help with the transition and not be a whining little bitch yelling about election fraud like Our Ochre Abomination...and yeah, I think, somewhere, Michael Brooks is smiling)...



...and if you’re looking for something inspirational for our own elections next Tuesday, I offer the following (from here)...



...and happy 75th birthday to Dave Pegg of Jethro Tull (the '80s version) and Fairport Convention.

Tuesday Stuff (updates)

Some point after the end of these every-other-year electoral contests (the major ones for president and the less-major-but-still-important off-cycle ones for the U.S. House and Senate also), I weigh in (for whatever my opinion is worth) about what has transpired, good and bad, about the election cycle that has just concluded. I usually hold off on that until after Election Day because I don’t want to say or do anything that could hurt Dem chances on November 8th (and yes, I realize I’m a miniscule player in all of this and probably couldn’t have much impact regardless).

However, I’m going to break with tradition a bit and comment a bit here because I think it’s necessary. I’ll give the glass-half-full perspective first and commend all of the hard work going on with everybody on team “D” doing the canvassing, phone calls, Emailing, texting, putting up signs, etc. for a whole slate of great candidates, including (but not limited to) John Fetterman, Ashley Ehasz (pictured above), Josh Shapiro, Steve Santarsiero, and Perry Warren. I’m grateful to do whatever I can to try and move our politics towards representing folks in our communities who need services as a “hand up” and not a “hand out” for the sake of themselves, their families and friends. THAT should be the focus to which we are all committed, regardless of how big or small our impact may be in that enterprise.

And saying that, I can’t help but feel a bit of a churn in my guts over what passes for “leadership” on the part of the national Democratic Party.

As far as I’m concerned, these alleged political/media/Beltway geniuses could not have made more of a mess of our campaign if they tried. If I had the opportunity to say this to @harrisonjaime and @SenSchumer, I might be inclined to quote Burt Lancaster as Gen. James Matoon Scott to Fredric March as President Jordan Lyman from the film “Seven Days In May” and say to both of them, “You’re not just a weak sister. You’re a criminally weak sister.” (no chauvinism is implied in that, by the way).

I see virtually no engagement on social media concerning what could pass for a Democratic Party platform, included supported positions and legislation passed over the prior two years (such as COVID relief, the American Rescue Plan and the infrastructure reconciliation bill...and yes, President Manchin and Vice President Sinema made sure that Build Back Better was eviscerated, but do you SERIOUSLY BELIEVE that a Republican congress and president would have passed and signed into law the legislation I just noted, imperfect as it was?). I see virtually NO FIGHT from our side on this stuff on the national level. None. I barely look at Facebook regardless of whether or not we’re in an election, but I can tell you that Twitter has become an utter cesspool of Republican bullshit. And yes, there are plenty of folks pushing back, but (with the commendable exception of Dem U.S. House Rep Bill Pascrell, Jr. of NJ) there is NOBODY from the national political organization engaging in this exercise (and if you want to get an idea of the mindset that we’re up against, take a good look at the picture).

I don’t know what’s going to happen in a week, but let me just say this to these alleges “geniuses” at the DNC; do you want to know the main reason why Democrats lose? IT’S BECAUSE PEOPLE DON’T KNOW WHAT THE HELL YOU STAND FOR, that’s why! And yes, I’m complaining about Democratic “messaging” (or the lack thereof) for the umpteenth time!

If nothing else, this is a sickening betrayal of the “foot soldiers” doing the great ground work that is needed for our campaigns to succeed. And it would be a lot easier to tolerate the non-stop appeals for money from phone calls, Emails, texts, you name it, if the people asking for my hard-earned dough had enough determinaton, courage and fortitude to merit a recurring contribution.

(And by the way, it’s unintentionally humorous to get appeals for donations also from Steve Bullock, who has written a few columns complaining about Dems allegedly not caring about the “heartland” and pretty much writing off Team D as a bunch of the dreaded “coastal elites.” I mean, Bullock could actually TRY AND ENGAGE THE OTHER SIDE in the battle of ideas...I mean, sure, the Dems can ALWAYS do more, but how about a little credit for what has transpired so far? And I know he has a bit of a point, but a circular firing squad will accomplish EXACTLY NOTHING to help us win elections.)

Update 1: Good advice from Mallory McMorrow (here - glad SOMEBODY is thinking about building up "the bench").

Update 2: And yeah, I think this matters too.

Update 3: I think this is well said.

And now that that rant is done, allow me to provide some of my own reminders as to why the Dems should be returned to power; first, because the other side sponsored the treasonous insurrection of January 6th, 2021...this was brought to us by REPUBLICANS, aided and abetted by REPUBLICAN POLITICIANS in the U.S. House and the U.S. Senate who either encouraged it or, by their silence, condoned it...this is a toned-down video versus what I’d like to actually present, but I know YouTube has become total bastards about what they’ll allow to be posted on a humble blog like this one because of admittedly violent content, but I don’t know how the hell you present anything about the 1/6 insurrection WITHOUT showing violence...



...and this reminds us of the aftermath of the Dobbs decision, when SCOTUS justices nominated, voted for and confirmed under Republicans decided that they should have the final say on decisions pertaining to women’s bodily autonomy...



Update 4: Yeah, I think this about says it.

...and what do you think they want to do to Medicare and Social Security if they get power? Do you really need to ask? And by the way, how many goddamn times are filthy, unkempt liberal bloggers like moi supposed to point out that LEX LUTHOR SCOTT WAS FOUND GUILTY OF THE BIGGEST MEDICARE FRAUD IN HISTORY???!!!...



Update 11/3/22: More here.

...and I realize this doesn’t really qualify as another “This Day In Doomsy History” entry from October 2013, but if you STILL need a bit of a preview as to what a GOP Congress would look like...well, we have recent history as an example as Ari Melber tells us, and with Greene, Boebert, Biggs, Gosar and the rest of our current bunch, you can add a whole bunch of “values” BS...going after gays/trans (including more dangerous nonsense such as high school kids allegedly using litter boxes), banning books, passing a nationwide abortion ban, and on and on and on...



...and I would agree very much with the “HELL, NO!” sentiment in this Lincoln Project video...



...and I realize that I haven't added a new tune here for a little while, so please allow me to make amends for that now.

Monday Stuff

Sam and Emma take a call from an individual describing what happened when the wingnuts lost it over a gay New York middle school teacher who displayed a pride flag...continually amazing to me that these life forms can do this stuff and still pretend to be Christian somehow...



...and David Doel tells us that Fix Noise is blaming Biden for the Paul Pelosi attack; figures...and of course, Bill Hemmer and Dana Perino are there to spread their BS false equivalency all over the place...”Well, shots were fired near the home of Republican Lee Zeldin of New York (here), so OF COURSE both sides are guilty of the same type of political violence”...GMAFB!...



Update: More here.

...and when it comes to the ’22 campaign season (with about a week to go), Trae Crowder reminds us that Not Your Father’s Republican Party doesn’t have an answer for what to do about inflation, or an answer for much of anything really except to get their base worked up over “values” nonsense (NSFW/H)...



...and Cenk and Adrienne Lawrence of TYT present more evidence that Americans in red states are dying younger than in blue states (and this is all pre-COVID, so I can’t imagine how much worse it is now)...



...and the Dollemore Daily with Brittany Page brings us Fix Noise demonizing the homeless...and yeah, it’s apparently as low down as you can expect from this bunch...



...and turning for a minute to Vlad The Butcher and his war of choice in Ukraine, Beau tells us that Russia is constructing defense lines on its border...yeah, I get the whole “fog of war” thing, but even for someone like me who definitely isn’t a military expert, I don’t see how this can be a positive development for Putin and his dreams of empire...



...and turning briefly again to the elections, Brian Tyler Cohen tells us that Former President Hopey Changey was on the campaign trail for Dem incumbent U.S. Senator Raphael Warnock of Georgia and had some good push-back against Warnock’s Repug opponent Herschel Walker (this was even better for Mandela Barnes against Rojo – PREACH!...and by the way, this tells us about Wisconsin’s U.S. Senatorial mistake and the whole “high school litter box” idiocy...kudos to Obama for doing this, but I think it’s needed because, once again, the national Democratic Party is doing yet another piss-poor job of messaging and reminding people that the Repug Party is THE PARTY OF TREASON AND INSURRECTION AND DENYING WOMEN THE RIGHT TO THEIR OWN BODILY AUTONOMY! – I’ll put up some stuff reminding people of that probably tomorrow, for what it’s worth)...



Update: Yeah, I think this says it about Herschel Walker.

...and by the way, Happy Halloween.